Personally I would start Sorloth up front and give him a run of games.He might not be the finished product but I believe he would provide a focal point and a a physical presence which we have been lacking.

Personally I would start Sorloth up front and give him a run of games.He might not be the finished product but I believe he would provide a focal point and a a physical presence which we have been lacking.

Sadly,not the finished article and doubtful if he would succeed in the Championship,although we may find out next season,the way things are going!!

We play a s***ty 442 with 4 central midfielders and 2 wingers up top, that's the managers fault. Hodgson needs to go cause I'm sick of it now. It's plainly obvious our best formation and shape. We've got a 30 million pound target man who we should be whipping in crosses to constantly through the game. Even when hes fit we don't play to his strengths no wonder he has no confidence. I know his injured but it should be a like for like replacement with sorloth. We also have the best creative player outside the top 6,apart from hazard probably the hardest player in the league for a defender to get the ball off but I know let's stick zaha up top on his own and allow him no influence on the game and let the opposition double up on him. Then to top it all off the one thing we was missing was a central playmaker, oh what's this we've managed to sign a 30 million pound player on a free, one of the best prospects in world football, I know why don't we just not bother playing him and when we do let's play him out of position. It's a joke,

We play a s***ty 442 with 4 central midfielders and 2 wingers up top, that's the managers fault. Hodgson needs to go cause I'm sick of it now. It's plainly obvious our best formation and shape. We've got a 30 million pound target man who we should be whipping in crosses to constantly through the game. Even when hes fit we don't play to his strengths no wonder he has no confidence. I know his injured but it should be a like for like replacement with sorloth. We also have the best creative player outside the top 6,apart from hazard probably the hardest player in the league for a defender to get the ball off but I know let's stick zaha up top on his own and allow him no influence on the game and let the opposition double up on him. Then to top it all off the one thing we was missing was a central playmaker, oh what's this we've managed to sign a 30 million pound player on a free, one of the best prospects in world football, I know why don't we just not bother playing him and when we do let's play him out of position. It's a joke,

If he was one of the best prospects in world football he wouldn't have joined us on a 'Free' ! I don't recall a great clamour for his services.Certainly don't view him in the £30 Mill category.

It comes down to one single transfer error, pure and simple: we didn't buy a striker. We've been performing pretty well and have the best squad we've ever had - but for the centre-forward position, and all those losses or draws to nil tell you exactly what the problem is.

Roy quite clearly isn't past it or has lost the players - he just doesn't have the final piece of the puzzle at his disposal. Poor from Parish, who once again thinks we can cruise by after a great escape only to run into reality.

I really don't get this blame Parish mentality, he not perfect but we obviously have brought in 2 forwards, Ayew and Sorloth. We along with all the other team around us have the same identified problem. Unless we are going to spend, upwards of 30 million again, we have take chances on unknown quantities like Sorloth. Ayew has been known to score a goal or two, however, I just don't think he's that good, we were trying to buy him but there was clearly not many options for our budget.

Even if you do shell our 25 to 30 million (if you say it quick, it doesn't sound like a lot) there is no guarantee that they will score the goals you need (Benteke).

We have a forward in Sorloth, who could maybe be good but we haven't seen enough of him to seriously judge his potential. Why buy him if your not going to play him? He needs at least 5 good starts. Roy keeps saying he's good and then puts Townsend up front. What does that do to a players confidence, when he sees a winger preferred ahead of the strikers and at a time when we need confidence. That's down to Roy.

If after a player has had a chance and they turn out to be not up to it, fair enough, stick them on the bench or move them on.

We know enough about Ayew to know he's not the answer.

As stated in a previous post, imho, we have a manager that plays a style before he plays to the strengths of the team. And it's a good team.

I've been encouraged by our performances over recent weeks against what are top 6 sides in games we all knew were going to be difficult - we've more than held our own against these sides and arguably should have come away with more points than we have so far with Manure left to play in this tough 4 game sequence.

Bu what will be defining is whether we can continue in the same manner against the so called lesser sides and turn good "hard luck" performances and stories into wins and points.

Pivotal for me will be the recruitment of a striker in January and it needs to be as soon as the window is open not p@ss balling about waiting until the end of January "trying to do a deal".

Up until his injury I was saying Wellbeck - now I really don't know - Sturridge? But WBA tried the same thing last January and he was pants.

I really don't get this blame Parish mentality, he not perfect but we obviously have brought in 2 forwards, Ayew and Sorloth. We along with all the other team around us have the same identified problem. Unless we are going to spend, upwards of 30 million again, we have take chances on unknown quantities like Sorloth. Ayew has been known to score a goal or two, however, I just don't think he's that good, we were trying to buy him but there was clearly not many options for our budget.

Even if you do shell our 25 to 30 million (if you say it quick, it doesn't sound like a lot) there is no guarantee that they will score the goals you need (Benteke).

We have a forward in Sorloth, who could maybe be good but we haven't seen enough of him to seriously judge his potential. Why buy him if your not going to play him? He needs at least 5 good starts. Roy keeps saying he's good and then puts Townsend up front. What does that do to a players confidence, when he sees a winger preferred ahead of the strikers and at a time when we need confidence. That's down to Roy.

If after a player has had a chance and they turn out to be not up to it, fair enough, stick them on the bench or move them on.

We know enough about Ayew to know he's not the answer.

As stated in a previous post, imho, we have a manager that plays a style before he plays to the strengths of the team. And it's a good team.

You can't blame Roy for Sorloth being crap and lazy in the first place. We had striker problems all last season, and the remedy for that was to bring in Jordan Ayew on loan? Not good enough.

The way this season is panning out Parish et al. have a different scenario around Xmas. The performances haven't been awful, we haven't taken a pasting and in most matches have had patches where we have looked good. No matches have we looked very poor for all of it. However we have gained very little points on the board. In previous seasons the norm has been to get a new manager in around Xmas who have rescued the season. So if the poor results continue up to Xmas, although the performances might not be poor does Parish et al. act ? This season is panning out to be the most difficult decision that the board have to make. The likelihood is that we will not have as many points on the board at Xmas than previous seasons where the manager has been sacked e.g. Warnock. I think the performances will help Roy and the quality of the managers available. If it deosn't improve and we leave it to late we could well take the drop. However whoever is in the hot seat at Xmas the board must back them in the transfer window at the level of Sam when he took control, £40 million or so.

Edited by Booted Eagle (11 Nov 2018 4.35pm)

“ [T]here are known knowns; there are things we know that we know.There are known unknowns; that is to say there are things that, we now know we don't know.But there are also unknown unknowns – there are things we do not know we don't know. ”—United States Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld

It has nothing to do with bringing in new players. We have been spending over the last couple of seasons with the best of them but that is not sustainable. We can't keep spending 20-30 million every transfer window. We have a good team. On paper...

I'm sorry to say this but we have a manager that after a full season in charge, doesn't know his best 11.

Players that we have brought in to supposedly improve the team, can't get a game and other players are played out of position. McArthur on the wing, while you have Townsend on the pitch !!! And yet Sorloth, who's probably not good enough anyway can't get a full game to show us what he's about.

AWB was an accident. If it was a case of, Roy saying, 'I like the look of him, we'll give him a chance soon' then fair enough but no, we would not know anything about him if Ward wasn't injured, he would not have had a sniff and would probably be on loan at Brentford by now.

We have a world cup winner in our academy but you just know he will never get a real chance unless half the team get injured and the groundsman forgets his kit.

Also why did we buy a top European goalkeeper to replace an average goalie only to keep him on the bench, oh hang on, we've done that before. I know Hennessy has improved but if he's our top goalie, why pay out wages for anything other than a bright young prospect to back him up. Guiata must be so pi55ed off that he came here. We don't see him being interviewed on Palace TV.

We buy a top European prospect in Jairo (potentially the one good thing FDB was responsible for) only to try and palm him off to Swansea for a player that can't score and will go AWOL the minute things don't go his way. Riedewald must also be so pi55ed off that he chose to come here, it's embarrassing.

I didn't expect us to beat Tottenham, or Chelski, or Arsenal. Wolves, yes, Southampton, yes, Huddersfield, most definitely. The reason for my rant is that this season feels like a waste to me. It's not the points or position in the league, we've played some really good teams so far, it's the waste of a potentially very good team and now the rot is setting in again.

I don't think we'll go down, 12th or 13th maybe but it's shaping up to be a long and ugly season, which, after last season, we really don't need.

Rant over.

So you think a team who looked like getting relegated for a large part of the season and whose main striker scored three goals didn't need to buy a quality striker?What we got was a failed Norweigan and a Jonah loan player. Not acceptable.We also had a major injury to a centre back who's backup has so far guaranteed defeat whenever he plays. No signing of a suitable replacement.

We did signed two players who never made the first eleven. Not good enough

You don't need to spend in line with other clubs. You just need to buy what you need. Of course it is about bringing in new players.